ISDN’s Gradual Demise?

John McClain: owner, President, CEO, and all around Grand Poobah of Dog and Pony Studios in Las Vegas is my ISDN conscience. Somewhere along the line he’s taken to advising me when he gets a tidbit about not-so-subtle hernias appearing in the soft underbelly of ISDN service in America.

Lately, it seems to be taking the form of Telcos silently strangling this mainstay of audio connections by cutting back on the long-distance connections that make it all work. Let’s face it…the AT&T’s of the world LOSE money on ISDN. This service is entrenched in the best VO studios across the country, so a quick demise is not likely, but a slow death by attrition is possible.

Follow this link to a thread on the Gearslutz Post Production forum revealing the latest woes:

I have had my black suit pressed to go to the ISDN funeral for at least 6 or 7 years now as everyone and their brother has predicted its demise. Sure, it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense that (relatively) ancient copper wire technology is in such heavy use today when we all have high speed internet but the fact remains that there is no other game in town. SourceConnect drops constantly and is unreliable on its own or bridging and nobody uses AudioTX. A lot of people are going to be in trouble if they cant get wiring installed because it is still very much an ISDN world.